The Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County was gifted a $1 million donation from Yield Giving, the charitable organization established by billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.
The gift marks the largest donation in the organization’s history, according to a news release.
The nonprofit coordinates efforts across 130 Chicagoland suburbs and about 40 agencies to prevent and end homelessness in the area. Founded in 2005 after evolving beyond the task force it began as, the nonprofit helps to provide emergency shelter and permanent housing for those experiencing homelessness as well as linking clients to necessary services.
“We’ve spent the million dollars 10 times over already in terms of the gaps, in terms of what we need in our homeless response system,” said Continuum of Care Planning Director for the Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County Katie Eighan. “It’s a lot of the work that we already do but it’s just getting it to the scale that we need.”
According to Eighan, over 13,000 clients were served by AEHSCC last year. She explained a large portion of the work the organization does revolves around finding affordable housing units, working with private landlords to keep the units affordable and placing clients.
Yield Giving announced open applications for funding in March 2023 and after multiple rounds of interviews and a peer review process, AEHSCC was chosen as one awardee among 6,353 applications. AEHSCC Executive Director Jennifer Hill said the nonprofit plans to use the unrestricted funding to expand staffing and the organization’s reach.
“The pandemic forever changed how we respond to homelessness in our suburban communities. The Yield Giving award has arrived just in time as the Alliance continues to transform that response,” Hill said. “The need is great, but our momentum to find solutions is now closer in reach.”
The COVID-19 pandemic ramped up the organization’s homelessness prevention efforts. State and federal pandemic assistance has ended, but Eighan said clients still need shelter and housing. There remains a need for about 650 units of nightly crisis shelters.
Church basements predominantly served as that space but when the pandemic began, church volunteers could no longer interact with the public in order to protect their own health, so that resource went away. To replace that, a whole new infrastructure of units needs to be established, Eighan said. State and federal funding in response to COVID-19 has been able to help pay for hotels and other resources, including the recent purchase of the Margarita Inn in Evanston by AEHSCC partner Connections for the Homeless.
“We are nowhere near having the crisis housing interventions we need,” Eighan said. “Relying on volunteers to open up their spaces and provide meals and provide a safe place to stay overnight absolutely is part of our vision of shelter. But it’s one model, not the full picture of what we need.”
The state has increased funding for the issue, doubling the amount allocated for the 2023-2024 fiscal year to $22 million, according to Eighan. Despite the increase, she said funding for the south suburbs ran out six months into the program.
Earlier this month, Gov. Pritzker announced an additional $5 million in funding for the Home Illinois Workforce Pilot Program with grantees to still be selected.
“The pandemic just really put a finer point on things that we were seeing as a homeless response system,” she said. “We saw what we can do when we have these spikes of stimulus from pandemic funds and now we need to keep it going. We can’t go back to where we were before.”
The nonprofit has also moved away from the congregate crisis housing model and toward individual spaces and units for clients. This came as a result of the social distancing requirements from the pandemic, but showed positive change for the clients. However, Eighan said this shift to a more intermediate housing model does increase the length of time people are in supportive housing and lengthens the waiting lists.
She said while increasing the shelter space is helpful, it won’t fulfill the nonprofit’s goal of ending homelessness. To achieve that, Eighan says permanent housing is needed.
“The solution to homelessness is not shelter, it’s housing,” she said. “When we don’t have enough permanent housing options, that’s when our crisis intervention doesn’t act as a crisis intervention anymore.”
